1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of controlling a network game.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a game in which players cooperate with each other to battle against an enemy, in order to promote cooperative playing by the players of the players a so-called “combo” function exists, for example. A “combo” means that an attacking effect is increased (an ability value is increased, a damage to the opponent is increased, or the like) when ally players continuously attack the enemy within a predetermined period. For example, at the “combo” status, the ability value increases more than usual in accordance with the number of times, or the like, of the successive attacks by the ally players. Thus, the ally players cooperate with each other to attack in order not miss the chance.
With such a function of the cooperative playing by the players, players are motivated to cooperate with other players to play the game on-line in real time. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-136350 discloses a technique in which information is exchanged by chats or the like between game terminal devices of members in the same team.
As described above, in the conventional game, players may be motivated to cooperate with other players by the function of the cooperative playing by the players such as the “combo” or the like. However, it was not enough for increasing bonding between the players because once the players are on-line, players can obtain results in the game just by simply processing the game in accordance with a predetermined rule based on information of other players displayed in screens.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-136350 does not disclose a mechanism by which players are motivated to take initiative to have communications with each other.